My friend Ronbo alerted me to the demise of Tapwave, makers of the killer Zodiac PalmOS PDA [zodiacend, zodiacreset]. This was not unexpected (see Last Sign of the Zodiac), but is still sad. I wonder what will happen to all of the Zodiac-accelerated apps? Will Novarra still make the nweb [nwebrev... read more →

There is an excellent new input hack for the Zodiac [zodiacend, zodiacreset] (and other full screen PalmOS devices) called Virtual Thumbboard. When you press a configurable trigger button such as the right shoulder button on the Zodiac, a virtual thumb-sized keyboard reminiscent of the Treo 650 ke... read more →

As much as I like my Thinkpad X40 [thinkpadx40issues, thinkpadreference, thinkpadx40] laptop (from IBM, not Lenovo), the quality just doesn't seem as good as my old Thinkpad X24. As I find various issues with the X40 that I don't like, I'll add them to the list below. If I press the un... read more →

There is an incredible amount of misinformation about video games being disseminated by the media and narrow-minded politicians regarding Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas . Perhaps some of these ill-informed talking heads should spend a few minutes reading Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked, writt... read more →

Most news feeds have reprinted the same generic obituray for James "Scotty" Doohan, but the most insightful one I read was in the Washington Post. The real tribute to James "Scotty" Doohan, 39 light-years after he first saved the USS Enterprise's heinie (and did it many times... read more →

Today I replaced a 3.5" floppy drive, a DVD-ROM drive, and a CD-RW drive in my WinXP machine with a single drive: the NEC DVD-RW ND-3520A. This drive reads and burns all current formats of DVD and CD media. I am able to rip entire albums (such as The Swinging Guitar of Tal Farlow ) to WMA Los... read more →

I've been using the Novarra nWeb [nwebreview, nweb, nwebcache] browser on my Zodiac quite a bit lately. It is truly an excellent and stable PalmOS application. Of course, that doesn't prevent me from finding a nitpick or two. The nWeb browser insists on backing up the web page and image ... read more →

I contacted tech support at iambic Software regarding software lock-ups with Agendus Mail [dumpingagendus, buyingagendusmail] on my Zodiac. They replied within 2 days, offering an apology and assuring me that my issue would be escalated to the engineers. Alas, that was the last I heard from them. ... read more →

In the past 8 weeks or so of crunch mode, I've managed to: Read ¾ of one book Play 12 hours of one video game Go to one movie However, during the same period of time, I've somehow managed to buy: One HDTV Five DVDs Four books Four CDs A Nintendo DS Five video games One DVD drive One ... read more →

Starting this year, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) is planning to replace every power meter in their territory with a new, remotely controlled power meter. According to sfgate.com, the new meter is actually a node on a vast new powerline network called Advanced Metering Infrastructure. This P... read more →

I've been using an original Microsoft IntelliMouse ever since it was released. I love the non-mechanical infrared tracking. However, one thing I've always hated with the MS Mouse is the ergonomics. Although the shape of the mouse is comfortable, each button is edged with a sharp plastic s... read more →

There aren't many better ways to spend a Sunday in July than to sit in the stands and watch Barry Zito pitch eight innings for an Oakland Athletics win. To increase revenues, the A's are planning to build a new baseball-only stadium in the next couple of years. While no one yet knows the l... read more →

I have a WinTV-D HDTV tuner card that I bought several years ago when I was experimenting with HDTV reception at my house. I no longer use it, but I decided to throw it in my Linux box. Eventually, I'll see if I can get it to work. Until then, here are the chips on the card for reference: Cone... read more →

Quiet computing used to be an underground hobby for people fed up with whining fans, buzzing monitors, and screaming hard drive platters. Thankfully, quiet computing has now become a mainstream selling point for modern computers. Witness the latest Dell Dimension 5100 and 9100 series PCs, with &q... read more →